Kingdom Hearts 4 is a seeming inevitability despite any official announcement from Square Enix. The Kingdom Hearts franchise has become one of the most beloved in games, especially among fans of JRPGs. Now that Kingdom Hearts 3 is firmly in the rearview mirror, many fans are looking ahead towards the next mainline entry. Ultimately, it's probably a good idea to look back at the successes of its predecessor KH2.
Widely considered the best Kingdom Hearts game in the series, KH2 was a critical and commercial success. It's clear the story of Sora will continue, but the question is in what shape and how. Taking the pieces of what worked well from KH3 and adapting the overall model that made Kingdom Hearts 2 stand might just be the best way forward.
What to Keep From Kingdom Hearts 3 for Kingdom Hearts 4
First and foremost, Kingdom Hearts 3 was visually stunning. Iconic characters like Sora and Mickey were on display in a fidelity never seen for the series before. The game was gorgeous in pretty much every way and ran smoothly even compared to how the Kingdom Hearts games now run on PC. Of course, no game is perfect.
One of the largest complaints among veteran KH fans was the game's incredibly low level of difficulty. The game offers a few higher difficulty modes but the increases in difficulty felt weak, similar to the ones in Final Fantasy 7 Remake did for some fans. To many players, KH2 had a much more engaging combat system that required learning the defensive maneuvers and enemy patterns in order to succeed.
Lastly, while Kingdom Hearts 3 suddenly lacked any Final Fantasy characters until the ReMind DLC, it did a good job of exploring the backstories of its own original characters. The comparison between the FF characters and the original KH ones is obvious, but getting more story about the members of Organization XIII and others was refreshing. Seeing the relationships between characters like Axel and Saix before they became Nobodies did a lot to bring some disparate elements of the overall narrative together. While some characters, namely Kairi, still haven't received their time to shine, KH3 focused on its original characters in a way that was engaging to many fans.
What to Bring Back From Kingdom Hearts 2 for Kingdom Hearts 4
While KH3 did a good job of exploring the stories of its original characters, it didn't do as a good of a job tying those characters into the various Disney worlds. After all, the bulk of each Kingdom Hearts game happens across the various Disney worlds that Sora and the other Keyblade warriors. With that, tying the overall events into those worlds is crucial and something KH2 did very well. KH2's story had some strange moments of course, but the fairly simple formula of dealing with threats from the Heartless on the first visit and then the Nobodies on the second in each Disney world worked well. This was partly due to tying the original characters to those events, like the Organization members stirring up trouble for each world.
Bringing back Final Fantasy characters is likely a good move for an inevitable Kingdom Hearts 4. The characters served as much more than just tacked-on fan service. Squall (Leon), Yuffie, Cid, and the others served as some of Sora's first friends on his journey and helped guide the young Keyblade warrior. Fan service isn't inherently bad either. FF7 Remake showed how much interest there still is in its characters and seeing the rivalry between Cloud and Sephiroth spill into the Kingdom Hearts universe was a blast for many. It also set up the series of now iconic secret boss fights with Sephiroth himself, notably absent from Kingdom Hearts 3.
Bosses in general were an issue in Kingdom Hearts 3 for some. Despite some interesting mechanics present in a couple of the fights and the sheer spectacle of KH3, many of its bosses remain less memorable than those of KH2. This was in part due to the absence of Reaction Commands. The contextual abilities that varied for each enemy and each boss made every encounter feel unique in KH2. The Reaction Commands also just objectively followed the "Rule of Cool." Being able to square off in a duel with the Samurai Nobodies or stomp on Barbossa's sword before countering created some of KH2's most memorable moments. These were largely replaced in KH3 with the attractions or weapon transformations, which had their merits, but to many lacked the same flair as Reaction Commands.
The Future of Kingdom Hearts
Overall, Kingdom Hearts 3 has its great moments, but many elements of what made KH2 great, and will subsequently make the eventual Kingdom Hearts 4 great as well, were lacking. Seemingly simple diversions were missing like a series of secret bosses and the vacuous loss of any Coliseum-equivalent.
Bringing back FF characters, more secret bosses and a tournament arena, and Reaction Commands could go a long way for Kingdom Hearts 4. Obviously balancing out the appeal of Reaction Commands and the Form system of KH2 against the objectively fun weapon transformations from KH3 could become daunting. That task isn't insurmountable though. Kingdom Hearts 4 has a lot in its future to work with in terms of its original characters and the seemingly obvious Final Fantasy Versus 13 influences at the end of the ReMind DLC. But looking back to its past in Kingdom Hearts 2 could prove the most important move going forward for Kingdom Hearts 4.
Kingdom Hearts 4 isn't yet confirmed to be in development.